1. Technical Field of the Invention
The principles of the present invention are generally related to development projects, and more specifically, but not by way of limitation, to a method and system for objectively assessing relationships between the development projects.
2. Description of Related Art
Projects that commercial and governmental organizations develop typically have processes and/or practices (collectively practices) applied thereto in order to conduct a smooth and successful project. Over the course of time, the organizations have successes and failures in conducting the projects while applying the practices. Each project often demands a different set of practices due to constraints and variables associated with the particular project. The practices may be related to requirements, specifications, management, testing, manufacturing, or any other type of discipline to be applied for conducting a successful project.
As is often the case, the organizations utilize particular practices in conducting new or current projects based on subjective knowledge and qualitative understanding of individuals who were involved with projects that were historically successful or unsuccessful. Alternatively and/or additionally, an organization may decide to choose one process over another based on familiarity or comfort with a process rather than effectiveness of a process to satisfy a particular need of the current project. As the practices for each project may vary, the success or effectiveness of the project may be due to the combination of the practices. However, organizations generally use “lessons learned” of historical projects, which, typically, are not quantitatively assessed, in determining which practices to apply to the new projects. This type of subjective determination of practices to be applied to new projects tends to result in sub-optimal project developments. Further, organizations typically do not itemize the practices in use on a particular project, thereby making subjective or quantitative assessments of questionable value because of the difficulty in describing what practices, in particular, are being assessed.
Consultants of projects who assist in determining which practices to be applied to new projects are often asked the questions: “How similar does the set of practices relate to those of other historical projects?” and “Based on the set of practices, how successful will the new project be?” Each of these questions is often difficult, if not impossible, to answer by the consultant-especially if an objective, quantitative answer is expected.